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TIFF Journal: Knives Out

Jason Gorber — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 12:00:21 +0000

The most obnoxious thing I can say about Rian Johnson’s Knives Out is that I prefer its mix of genre tropes and social commentary to Jordan Peele’s Get Out. Frankly, the mix of Clue with an acerbic and biting look at race, class, and privilege in America is more entertaining to me than taking The...

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What They Had Review: I’m Sure It’s Fine

Deirdre Crimmins — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 15:00:20 +0000

Repetition in film fascinates me. I love seeing emerging patterns and repeated phrases as a way for filmmakers to call our attention to certain details. I wish I had the foresight to count the number of times the word “fine” is said during What They Had, because they are most certainly not fine. The film...

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’12 Strong’ Review: Pretty Weak

Philip Brown — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 16:00:59 +0000

‘American Sniper’ wasn’t a film that I was fond of at the time, but its legacy is something that I particularly dislike. Thanks to the success of Clint Eastwood’s rousing “kill all the evil brown people” war parable, Hollywood essentially revived the old-fashioned war propaganda picture. The latest is ’12 Strong’, a military epic that...

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‘The Shape of Water’ Review: Amelie Meets the Creature from the Black Lagoon

Philip Brown — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 20:00:10 +0000

Guillermo del Toro’s latest film is a stunning achievement and easily one of his finest works. At once a profoundly personal fairy tale love story and a perversely entertaining monster flick, ‘The Shape of Water’ is destined to be loved by those who live their lives and find their loves on the fringes. Sally Hawkins...

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TIFF Journal: ‘The Shape of Water’

Philip Brown — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 18:00:20 +0000

Throughout his strange career, Guillermo del Toro has made it a mission to fuse horror and fairy tales until they become indistinguishable. The guy has done a remarkable job weaving those dreams together so far, but something about his latest feature ‘The Shape of Water’ feels even more special. Fully embracing his latent whimsy while...

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‘Nocturnal Animals’ Review: Meta Tragedy

Philip Brown — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 20:00:50 +0000

Weaving stories within stories within pretty pictures, Tom Ford’s ‘Nocturnal Animals’ is an immaculately constructed cinematic contraption that just might be a little empty inside. Like the fashion designer-turned-director’s previous feature, ‘A Single Man‘, the aesthetic qualities of the film are designed down to the tiniest detail, but emotions run cold and humanity remains distant....

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TIFF Journal: ‘Salt and Fire’

Philip Brown — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 17:00:31 +0000

Werner Herzog is a brilliant filmmaker when his unique imagination matches up with the right material. Given that the guy tends to make movies even faster and in greater numbers than Woody Allen, that means that his talents syncing up with his subject happens less and less frequently these days. Every now and then we...

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TIFF Journal: ‘Loving’

Philip Brown — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 17:00:26 +0000

‘Loving’ is one of those important historical dramas about groundbreaking folks who changed America. It’s also an incredibly intimate character study of two simple people uncertain of why their pure love could cause such wild controversy. The ways the movie stays so small and human make the latest feature from Jeff Nichols (‘Take Shelter’, ‘Midnight...

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‘Midnight Special’ Review: Zod v. Kylo Ren – Dawn of Superkid

Philip Brown — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 19:00:17 +0000

There are several ways in which ‘Midnight Special’ feels like a throwback. In movie geekery terms, the film plays as an homage to the mystery, complexity, wonderment and technical mastery that young Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter brought to their early efforts (specifically, ‘Close Encounters’ and ‘Starman’). More than that, the movie harkens back to...

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‘The Night Before’ Review: A Very Bromantic Christmas

Philip Brown — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 20:00:01 +0000

The Seth Rogen movie machine has become so well-oiled that, at this point, all the guy really needs to do is pick a genre or concept and slip it into his formula. It only makes sense that he’d eventually make a Christmas movie. After all, that genre comes with the built-in warm ‘n fuzzies that...

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’99 Homes’ Review: Wall Street 3

Philip Brown — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 17:00:33 +0000

Given the devastating effect it had on the U.S. economy, it’s a bit of a shock how few movies have been made about the credit-crunch housing crisis. ’99 Homes’ is the first to take it on directly. Ramin Bahrani’s feature is a searingly painful examination of that world, even if it hammers home its arguments...

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‘Young Ones’ Review: Gorgeously Empty

Philip Brown — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 17:00:49 +0000

Jake Paltrow’s ‘Young Ones’ is a gorgeously visualized movie that toys with Western and post-apocalyptic thriller conventions in intriguing ways. Unfortunately, beyond the style and setup, the film is sadly hollow. Even if it’s enjoyable to watch in the moment, it simply doesn’t hold together once given much thought. The appeal of the film will...

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